


Request

by MaryaDmitrievnaLikesSundays



Category: Ghost Quartet - Malloy
Genre: Bars, Dave Malloy, F/F, Ghost Quartet, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Malloy - Freeform, Rose Red - Freeform, SOLDIER - Freeform, idk what else to put
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-05
Updated: 2017-09-05
Packaged: 2018-12-24 02:53:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12003471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaryaDmitrievnaLikesSundays/pseuds/MaryaDmitrievnaLikesSundays
Summary: Rose Red will use anything to get what the Bear asked for. That includes Soldier.





	Request

Soldier saw her in a bar.

She was leaning against the counter, half-hidden in the shadows. Her hair was tied up in an elegant bun, her floral dress seeming to sway without the help of the wind. In one hand she held a beat up camera, in the other an entire bottle of borboun. She wasn't making any attempt to talk to anyone, she was simply watching the crowd of drunken dancers make regrettable decisions they wouldn't remember.

Soldier, though, would always remember. How could she forget Rose Red?

Eventually, Rose caught Soldier staring, and their eyes met for just a moment before Soldier quickly averted her gaze onto her half-empty glass of whiskey. Her cheeks were burning.

Soldier heard a barstool being drawn out beside her, saw a camera being placed on the counter, felt a hand on her shoulder. 

Soldier looked up and saw Rose Red taking a long swig from her drink. Soldier looked down again.

The two sat in silence for a long while, silently sipping their drinks, Soldier feeling very strangely nervous. 

Eventually, Rose said, "Figured if you were going to stare I might as well give you a close up."

Oh god, oh god, Rose really had caught Soldier.

"Shitty way to spend a Thursday night, huh Soldier?"

Was it Thursday? Soldier couldn't tell anymore.

"Then again, where else do I have to be?"

Soldier wanted to say something, she just wasn't sure how. She couldn't seem to move from her position hunched over her glass, couldn't make her lips form words or her throat form sounds. But she certainly wanted to talk to this very interesting woman, and maybe if she just came up with a witty enough response...

"Maybe somewhere that makes you happy." 

Soldier had barely heard herself, and would not have believe she had said anything at all if it were not for Rose's next words:

"I'm sorry?"

It occurred to Soldier right then that Rose had long since moved on from her previous topic, but Sokdier had already spoken. She looked up into Rose's eyes, her heart skipping a beat much like the first time.

"I...I said maybe you should be somewhere that makes you happy. Because you said you had nowhere else to be?"

Soldier cringed at the words as she said them. Rose, however, smiled. If Soldier had looked a bit harder she would have seen how the smile didn't spread to Rose's eyes.

"I guess you're right about that."

A long pause.

"Well, my names Rose, if you were wondering. Rose Red."

A beautiful name. A beautiful girl.

"So what should I call you?"

God, it had been so long since anyone had asked Soldier her name. She almost didn't remember it anymore.

"You-you called me Soldier earlier. I think I like that."

Rose laughed (it was as hollow as her smile, but Soldier never noticed).

"Okay then, Soldier. I guess we just met."

The two carried on their conversation long into the night, whispering secrets to one another as more drunken crowds of dancers came and went. Soldier was so charmed by Rose that she began to let her guard down, something she hadn't even dreamed of doing for months. And every time their eyes met, Soldier's heart soared. And Rose knew it.

Eventually, Rose managed to steer the conversation to what was in the glass jar that wa barely visible Soldier's backpack. 

"So, how did you come across this much honey? I mean I've always thought of honey as some kind of fancy delicacy, and here you are waltzing around with a huge jar of the stuff."

And just like that, Soldier's guard was back up. She didn't want to remember what she had done to get that honey. 

"I'd rather not talk about it. Please."

Rose did not fulfill her request.

xxx

Some months had passed since that first night. Soldier and Rose had met nearly every day since, and Soldier had nearly forgotten about how hard Rose had pushed at that bar.

Nearly.

Currently Rose and Soldier were walking together to get ice cream. Rose was going on and on about how all the stars and moons and skies and birds and trees and sharks and seas had meant for them to find one another, but Soldier's mind was far away. Her hand in Rose's was slack.

What was their relationship? The two had seen one another many times, and Soldier was fairly certain she was in love with Rose. The question was did Rose love her? Soldier wanted to know. She wanted to know now. She didn't think she could take any more of her heart sparking while she was with arose and burning out the moment she left.

"And I swear I was about to cry--"

"Tell me you love me."

Rose stopped dead.

"What?" She asked in shock. For just a moment, Rose's soft cover broke, some of her true dark intentions poking through so fast Soldier could have imagined it.

Soldier looked up at Rose (although she was a good few inches taller than Rose, her constantly slouched posture made her appear shorter than she really was) and felt her heart flutter as she did so, just like every time. 

"Tell me you love me."

Rose did not fulfill her request.

xxx

A year had passed since that day. Rose had told Soldier that she had loved her, but she was just giving Rose the answer she had wanted to hear. 

Soldier was beginning to realize that.

They were back in the same bar, Soldier well on her way to a drunken fury.

Rose was once again talking about Soldier's surplus of honey, and Soldier was starting to doubt their relationship. Of course, she had been doubting it for many months now, but was only just starting to acknowledge it.

"Rose, just stop," Soldier said quietly.

Rose looked down at her just like she had the first night when Soldier spoke for the first time. Except this time, Soldier could actually see the dark, swirling emotions, the sickness that constantly dwelled inside of Rose.

"I'm sorry?"

Soldier looked up at Rose, grim determination and  
abandon evident in her expression, contradicting perfectly to build the following moment.

"Stop. I know what you want. If you just want to steal my honey, at least wait until I'm drunk. Then dance with me for a bit, then shoot me in the alley. I won't come back to haunt you. I won't have the time."

And once again, Rose did not fulfill her request. 

Why did Soldier have to do everything herself?


End file.
